After a career spanning five decades, Michael Keaton is back on top thanks to his return as Beetlejuice in Tim Burton’s legacy sequel to the 1988 horror comedy. The huge success of the movie has resulted in the former Batman star reaching a massive personal milestone to add to his many awards and accolades that he has achieved in his time in the industry.
As the worldwide haul of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice sits just below $350 million, the film has pushed Keaton’s total career box office revenue to over $7 billion. While the actor’s career has seen many ups and downs, his box office appeal has rarely waned for long. Even movies he has been involved in that have been deemed a disaster – such as Tim Burton’s remake of Dumbo – have added a substantial amount to his personal tally.
The release of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice came with a certain amount of trepidation thanks to the many decades that have passed since the original movie’s debut and the long and laborious development and production time of the sequel. However, as the movie’s box office total surpassed the original movie’s entire haul in a few days, all doubts evaporated like a ghostly vapor, leaving the movie free to dominate the box office for several weeks despite several other high profile releases.
Michael Keaton’s Biggest Movies
It is not surprising that Michael Keaton’s highest grossing movie as the lead star is still 1989’s Batman. His original appearance as the Dark Knight took $411 million on the back of its $48 million budget. Having one of the lowest budgets of Keaton’s top movies, it also made his comic book movie appearance one of his most profitable by some way. However, Batman is not the highest grossing movie he has been involved in thanks to his appearances in several blockbuster franchise movies.
Sitting above Batman on Keaton’s all-time highest grossing list are Cars with $426 million, Spider-Man: Homecoming with $880 million, Toy Story 3 with $1.07 billion, and top of the stack is 2015’s Minions and its haul of $1.16 billion. Currently, the only movie between Batman and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is Dumbo, which took a disappointing-for-Disney $353 million in 2019 and will likely be passed by his latest movie.
Of course, Keaton could have perhaps reached his $7 billion milestone much sooner if 2023’s The Flash had lived up to its potential, but his Batman return in that movie was marred by a combination of changing plans at Warner Bros., which led to the cancelation of his other Batman appearance in the Leslie Grace-led Batgirl, and the generally troubled production of The Flash thanks to several delays and external issues with star Ezra Miller becoming a public minefield. However, the actor is currently in the middle of a renaissance, and that could mean that his new milestone certainly won’t be his last. He will next appear in the comedy Goodrich, which is set to be released on October 18.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
is still playing in theaters.